01 January, 2016

January 2016: Advanced Clash Detection

Question: Can you export columns from the Markup dialog box to Excel?
Answer: This question came up while we were looking at Bentley Navigator's markup capability. First, to reiterate the ability to create markups is available in Bentley Navigator and is not part of the AECOsim Building Designer clash detection functionality. The markups are created, reviewed and edited in Bentley Navigator and can be viewed in the AECOsim Building Designer markup dialog.

The markup list in the markup dialog can be exported to .csv format with a key-in:

• MARKUP EXPORT [ ACTIVE | ALL | RELATED ]

The command will prompt you for a location and name of the .csv file.

The ACTIVE, ALL and RELATED options are filters for the markup list in the markup dialog and are defined as:

• ACTIVE — displays all markups found in the open overlay file
• ALL — displays all markups in the specified markup path(s), which is set from the Markups Search Path menu in the Markup Settings dialog
• RELATED — displays all markups in the specified markup path(s) related to the same source DGN file

When you are in the source DGN file (where the components are modeled) you cannot use the ALL key-in option in AECOsim Building Designer (even though it is in the filter list). You can open an overlay file in AECOsim Building Designer and use the ALL option with the key-in, and you can edit the properties of the markups while in the overlay file.

The markup search paths is initially set with the MS_MARKUPS configuration variable, paths can be added or removed via the Markup Settings dialog box found on the Markups dialog.

Question: Is there a way to export the images with the clashes?
Answer: The images are not exported with the markup export key-in function. The markups  themselves can be printed to PDF with the Print to PDF tool on the Markups dialog box.

Multiple markups can be printed to one PDF file simply by selecting which markups you want to include in the Markups dialog list.

Question: When marking up clash detection results in Bentley Navigator then hitting right-click and view can it jump to the same view as it does with regular markups
Answer: The view will jump to the camera view of the markup whether the markup is created via the Clash Detection dialog or created 'manually' with the Create Markup tool.

Question: Where does a clip volume go after switching back to review mode?
Answer: A clip volume applied before a markup is created will be maintained in the markup view and remains in the view when you 'switch to review mode'. The 'Show or Hide Active Clip Volume'  tool (in the View tool boxes and also, in Bentley Navigator, in the Examine task group) can be used to display the boundary of the active clip volume. The boundary can be selected to display and adjust or delete the clip volume.